#Leaded: Made Safe Certified Pura Kiki Baby Bottle Purchased New In January of 2018 (Video)

Published: July 2, 2018

Below is an 8-minute video we made this week of our testing of a new-in-the-box, purchased in 2018, “Made Safe Certified” Pura Kiki stainless steel insulated baby bottle for lead (Pb).

This stainless steel baby bottle is supposed to be Lead-free…

Both the Made Safe certification and Pura Kiki’s marketing materials imply – or outright state – that this product does not contain any Lead/or has not contained any Lead (as one of a list of of 80,000 toxic chemicals their materials say it does not contain).

While the lead in this product is “not accessible to the user” at the time of purchase, there is in fact a relatively large amount of pure lead in the product (at a level that is considered unsafe for children.)

The manufacturer (Pura) is aware of this problem

We brought this issue to the attention of the manufacturer back in January/ February/ March/ April/ May of 2017, and this bottle (in the video) was purchased a year later (January 2018] and still had Lead [the packaging for the specific bottle tested in the video below also had the “Made Safe Certification” on the label].

Is this a problem if the Lead doesn’t touch the contents of the bottle?

Outside of the concern for blatant false advertising claims by both the manufacture and the “Made Safe” certification, the reason this is concerning is that we have also learned from many fans, friends and followers that the bottom cap (which ostensibly securely covers the Lead-containing component of the product), can pop off with normal use (using the product as intended) by a child, exposing the infant using the bottle to the (incredibly neurotoxic) nearly pure lead “sealing dot” (about one cm diameter – see video).

There are two obvious possible solutions to this problem.

1. Possible solution one: for Made Safe to rescind their certification (and for the company to change their marketing materials), and/or
2. Possible solution two: for the company to honor their public statements and remove the lead from the product [I understand the company has (again) said they were planning to remove the lead in 2018, so we are going to store shelves and Amazon to purchase another round of new-in-box bottles this month to see if the ones available to purchase in July of 2018 still have lead or not.]

What else could these companies do to restore our faith?

As parent advocates, we would also like to see a voluntary recall or public (highly visible) statement from the company (along with a press release) alerting parents to this concern. This is especially important, as there has been a de facto deception here. Most parents who have communicated with me about this product bought it SPECIFICALLY because they were told (by the marketing materials from the manufacturer and via the “Made Safe” certification) that it was “Lead-free” —  and it is not. This is also an issue because old stock (product manufactured in previous years) is often still available for purchase on products in the absence of a recall.

What does the manufacturer have to say about this?

In response to inquiries in April and May of 2017 the company representatives had promised to several of their customers (customers who are also Lead Safe Mama readers, friends and followers) that their new bottles at that time “no longer had Lead”. Some of these customers were sent “replacement bottles” that were said to be truly lead-free, yet the replacement bottles (at least the new ones that were forwarded to us for testing) also exhibited the same failure mode (the bottom cap still popped off with normal use by a child) and the same apparently pure-Lead sealing dot! [See my other posts on this product.]

What does “Made Safe” have to say about this?

I attempted to discuss this issue with  “Made Safe” last year (in July of 2017, and before – with calls, emails and Facebook messages) and received no response at that time. I also followed up with them in person in February of this year (February 2018 – at a natural blogging conference in Southern California) and was told by the Made Safe Executive Director that there was nothing they could do, as the company (Pura) had assured them (as Pura has tried to assure many of their customers) that any Lead in these baby bottles was not accessible.

To reiterate the most important point here:

The issue of whether or not the Lead is accessible is irrelevant and completely separate from the concern around whether or not Lead is present. The claims and certifications by both PuraKiki and Made Safe are that the products are Lead-free, when they are not. This is false advertising pure and simple.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions — although please watch the video first; most are answered in the video. [I think this is one of our best videos yet!] My partner in this video is Carissa with Creative Green Living.

This is my Amazon affiliate link* for the product in question [Note: only the insulated bottles are impacted by the concern for lead (Pb) in the sealing dot.]

Additional testing is still warranted, we need to see if they have made the promised change to these baby bottles and removed the Lead.

I am looking for 4 or 5 more bottles to be purchased new and sent to me for testing (to see if the new bottles / the bottles still on the shelf have lead.) The bottles cost about $25 each. If you are in a position to purchase one and have it to me, please send me a note and let me know. When I have heard from folks that I am getting at least five of these bottles in the mail, I will post that here. Thank you! [Number of bottles on the way to me for testing at the moment of posting this: 0/Zero]. These bottles will be destroyed (deconstructed for testing), so cannot be sent back or returned to the purchaser. [If you want to chip in towards the cost of purchasing some additional bottles for testing/ to help cover the cost of the testing, you can also do that HERE.]

Thank you for reading and for following my blog!

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

*Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on one of these links I may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you. 

Pura Kiki “Made Safe Certified” Baby Bottle With Leaded Sealing Dot On Bottom from Tamara Rubin on Vimeo.